Improving Liverpool's children's services like a 'huge ship to turn around'

The head of Liverpool’s children’s services has likened improving social care to a “huge, huge ship to turn around” as she defended performance at the authority. Amid a challenging report on performance within social services, Jenny Turnross, corporate director of children’s and young people’s services, said the city was on a five year journey after an excoriating Ofsted inspection last year.

A review by officials in March 2023 came as a hammer blow to Liverpool Council. The excoriating assessment said performance of social care teams by the local authority in how it looked after children contained “serious weaknesses.” Young people were deemed at risk of harm.

The inspectorate has since visited the authority on a number of occasions with the feeling being Liverpool was turning a corner. This has been dealt something of a blow internally as councillors on the children and young people scrutiny committee took a dim view of an internal report on performance for the first quarter of this financial year.

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A performance and quality assurance (QA) Report outlines the city’s practice and management activity to provide an evidence base for self-evaluation and service planning. It set out how the number of referrals to social services is continuing to increase and many young people with repeat contacts experiencing issues such as domestic abuse, substance misuse, mental health issues, and child exploitation were often left with no further action.

The report said this indicated a “potential underestimation of the cumulative risks posed to the children or a lack of thorough assessment of the wider context surrounding each incident.” Inconsistencies in decision making “likely result in prolonged exposure to harmful environments” and indicated “potential systemic issues,” it said.

The document added how such issues can lead to inefficiencies and “missed opportunities for early intervention, ultimately compromising the quality of care provided to at-risk children.” It said harm that children experienced for a long period of time is not always recognised and this results in “overoptimistic” decision making, potentially leaving children to suffer forms of harm.

This was met with scorn by committee members including Cllr Liz Makinson. The deputy leader of the Liberal Democrat group said: “When I was reading this I was quite troubled by some of the things I was reading in it.

“These are very serious issues I hoped we had moved considerably away from.” Cllr Billy Lake added: “We’ve never been very good at children’s services.”

Cllr Ellie Byrne, Labour member for Everton East, said: “When I initially read it, it was just completely shocking, it was a really hard read.” She added how children and families were experiencing “really difficult, horrific circumstances” and children suffering “horrendous abuse that isn’t being recognised.”

This prompted a robust defence on performance from Ms Turnross, who acknowledged there was “still a lot to do in this city.” She said: “We were honest that this is a three to five year plan to get to requires improvement, then good.”

Ms Turnross added how there had been “incremental shifts” in each Ofsted monitoring visits since the inspection last year. She said: “Let me be clear, I am assured that for children who need immediate help we have seen and continue to see improvements.”

The director said the area was “where we expect to be” on the improvement journey and added how improving services was akin to a “huge, huge ship to turn around.”